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Stepping up patrolling pays

Increasing number of point books results in higher visibility for police, writes Marri Ramu

Instead of treating a police station’s entire area as equally crime-prone, it is better to focus more on the specific sector or beat witnessing more offences.

This small observation of Cyberabad Police Commissioner S. Prabhakar Reddy and the subsequent steps he undertook are doing wonders in controlling crime in Cyberabad. Based on this assumption, the Inspectors were directed to analyse beat-wise incidence of crime, increase number of point books in those specific localities, step up patrolling and divide the beat area into two if they are too big in each police station.

Increased movement of a police patrolling vehicle helped the Jeedimetla police catch a person speeding away in his car after raping a minor in Chintal area last week. Property offences were on the rise in the area where the driver violated the girl prompting the police to step up patrolling. Two persons fleeing after stealing a motorcycle were also caught within minutes .

Beat books

Increasing number of point books, which are kept in the houses of individuals or shops where the constables patrolling the area would sign during the nights, resulted in higher visibility of the police. More over, the policemen were asked not to follow the same pattern while patrolling the beat.

If there are 26 point books in one beat, instead of always going from A to Z, the policemen were instructed to go first to ‘S’ one day, ‘D’ the other day. The remaining points would be reached depending on how, where and what time the offenders are striking. Mr. Reddy’s simple experiment yielding better results in prevention and detection of crime is worth extending to all police stations in the State.